Tim Duncan Sat Out Practice Saturday With A Stomach Bug

Tim Duncan should be good to go for Monday’s Game 1, but you never like to see a star player missing practices so close to an important game. Via the Express-News: “Spurs forward Tim Duncan arrived at the team’s practice facility Saturday morning and was promptly sent home. Ailing with what the team is calling a stomach bug, Duncan missed the Spurs’ final full workout in preparation for the start of a Western Conference semifinal series against Golden State on Monday. Coach Gregg Popovich doesn’t believe the illness will affect his All-Star big man’s availability for Game 1. ‘He’ll be fine,’ Popovich said. Considering the manner in which a wave of illness has ravaged the Chicago Bulls during their playoff series with Brooklyn, the Spurs were taking no chances that whatever is hampering Duncan might be contagious. … ‘You have to be careful, of course,’ guard Manu Ginobili said. ‘But sometimes the thing is contagious before you realize. So there’s not much you can do.'”